ADDRESS 


SENATOR  CHARLES  A.  CULBERSON 


AT  THE 


IROQUOIS  CLUB  BANQUET 
CHICAGO 


APRIL  13,  1904 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

JUDD   &  DETWEII<ER,  PRINTERS 

I904 


Urf  Collection 


INTERNATIONAL  MORALITY. 


Mr.  Toastmaster  and  Gentlemen: 

From  my  State  I  bring  you  encouragement  and  good 
cheer.  All  is  well  in  that  Commonwealth,  and  we  are 
watching  with  deep  interest  the  efforts  which  are  making 
for  success  in  other  sections  of  the  Union.  Among  the 
agencies  engaged  in  this  work  none  surpass  this  club,  and  I 
congratulate  you  upon  this  brilliant  function,  which  cannot 
fail  to  redound  to  your  fame  as  a  host  and  to  the  advance- 
ment of  those  fundamental  principles  of  party  faith  to  which 
we  are  all  devoted. 

As  the  first  Secretary  of  State  under  the  Constitution, 
Thomas  Jefferson  laid  the  foundation  of  American  diplo- 
macy. Although  menaced  by  hostile  environments  and 
embarrassed  by  selfish  considerations,  he  so  conducted  the 
first  great  diplomatic  controversy  as  to  maintain  the  public 
faith  unsullied  and  establish  an  advanced  standard  of  con- 
duct for  all  nations.  On  an  occasion  when  the  anniversary 
of  the  birth  of  this  illustrious  statesman  and  philosopher  is 
celebrated,  and  in  times  when  national  honor  is  tarnished 
by  political  ambition  and  commercial  greed,  it  is  well  to 
recall  that  there  is  an  international  morality  which  neither 
the  importance  of  civic  achievement  nor  the  glamour  of 
military  conquest  can  obscure. 

In  the  progress  of  the  world,  among  modern  States,  the 
rule  of  the  sword  has  been  tempered,  if  not  abrogated,  by  the 
law  of  nations,  that  system  of  right  and  justice  which  should 
obtain  between  them.     Of  what  this  law  consists,  in  all  its 


ramifications,  we  need  not  now  inquire,  nor  need  we  trace  it 
from  its  origin  to  its  present  commanding  proportions.  It 
will  suffice  to  say  that  it  embraces  the  usages  of  civilized 
nations  in  international  affairs,  and  its  growth  is  the  reflec- 
tion of  their  external  and  moral  development.  It  is  an 
obvious  philosophic  truth  that  States,  like  individuals,  are 
moral  persons,  and  there  is  no  happier  augury  of  a  progress- 
ive civilization  than  that  moral  principles  are  recognized 
as  distinct  sources  of  international  law.  The  consequences 
which  follow  disregard  of  these  principles  by  States  are 
manifestly  and  immeasurably  graver  than  those  which 
result  from  individual  infractions.  With  the  manifold  vio- 
lations of  positive  law  which  they  involve,  comprehending 
in  their  sweep  the  great  questions  of  neutrality,  treaties  and 
war,  and  the  vast  injury  to  States  and  countless  thousands 
of  their  inhabitants,  they  often  pass  into  the  wider  domain 
of  morality,  where  the  breach  of  national  duty  is  so  flagrant 
and  redress  so  inadequate  or  impossible  that  it  is  cognizable 
alone  in  the  forum  of  conscience  and  at  the  bar  of  an 
enlightened  public  opinion. 

For  the  first  time  in  our  history  as  a  people,  in  a  single 
transaction,  by  its  recent  conduct  in  Panama,  the  Federal 
Administration  distinguished  itself  in  shame  by  adding  to 
multiplied  offenses  against  law  the  grossest  moral  delin- 
quencies. To  contempt  of  legal  restraint  which  must  chal- 
lenge the  solicitude  of  all  patriots,  to  breaches  of  neutrality, 
to  violations  of  precedents  and  treaty  obligations,  and 
waging  an  unjust  though  bloodless  war,  it  added  other 
wrongs  to  a  defenseless  Republic  and  left  other  and  more 
ineffaceable  stains  upon  our  national  integrity  and  charac- 
ter.    This  incident  throughout  was  marked  not  alone  by 


repeated  injustice,  but  by  reproach  and  dishonor.  The 
declaration  of  the  Administration  that  it  did  not  officially 
and  publicly  instigate  the  revolt,  for  that  is  the  whole  force 
of  the  denial,  is  fully  accepted,  and  yet  its  conduct  was 
tantamount  to  instigation  and  encouragement,  and  had 
that  effect.  What  it  failed  to  do  officially  and  publicly  was 
done  personally  and  secretly.  The  friendly  press  and  peri- 
odicals of  the  time  abounded  with  inspired  suggestion  and 
advice  of  secession,  and  personal  correspondence  of  the  Ad- 
ministration encouraged  editorial  insistence  upon  revolution 
and  immediate  recognition.  Foreign  conspirators  at  Wash- 
ington became  the  confidants  of  the  Government  and  ad- 
vised their  confederates  of  the  movements  of  the  Navy  with 
an  accuracy  and  detail  impossible  except  from  foreknowl- 
edge. Upon  the  failure  of  the  Senate  of  Colombia  to  ratify 
the  canal  treaty,  the  chairman  of  the  Senate  Committee  on 
Foreign  Relations  (Mr.  Cullom)  was  called  to  see  the  Presi- 
dent, and  immediately  after  the  interview  the  Senator  gave 
to  a  great  newspaper,  in  August,  1903,  three  months  prior 
to  the  rebellion,  this  significant  and  remarkable  statement, 
which  was  no  doubt  published  throughout  this  continent 
and  in  Europe: 

"  Well,  we  might  make  another  treaty,  not  with  Colombia, 
but  with  Panama." 

"  But  Panama  is  not  a  sovereign  State,  and  is  only  a  de- 
partment of  Colombia." 

"  Intimations  have  been  made  that  there  is  great  discon- 
tent on  the  Isthmus  over  the  action  of  the  Congress  of  the 
central  government,  and  Panama  might  break  away  and 
set  up  a  government  which  we  could  treat  with,"  was  the 
reply. 

"  Is  the  United  States  prepared  to  encourage  such  a  schism 
in  a  South  American  Republic  ?  " 


"  No,  I  suppose  not,  but  this  country  wants  to  build  that 
canal  and  build  it  now.  It  needs  it  for  its  own  defense,  and 
it  is  needed  by  the  whole  world.  The  treaty  is  blocked  by 
a  country  that  has  been  treated  well  by  us,  and  there  are 
very  weighty  considerations  which  make  us  feel  that  at  all 
hazards  this  great  work  should  be  undertaken  at  the  earliest 
possible  minute." 

There  is  no  mistaking  the  mere  language  of  this  paper. 
If  the  suggestion  may  be  pardoned  in  this  presence,  it  is  the 
vernacular  of  the  West  and  is  redolent  of  the  prairies  of  this 
great  State.  But  whence  the  inspiration,  whence  the  thought 
of  conflict  and  revolution  ?  It  would  be  gross  misjudgment 
of  character  to  suppose  that  this  conception,  which  was  an 
invitation  to  secede  and  a  promise  of  recognition,  was  that  of 
the  distinguished  but  pacific  Senator  from  Illinois,  rather  than 
of  hirn  whose  very  element  is  unrest  and  disorder,  with 
whom  arbitrary  and  despotic  action  is  a  passion,  and  to 
whom  the  tinsel  and  show  and  havoc  of  war  are  dearer  than 
the  sublimer  glories  of  peace  and  civic  righteousness.  In 
the  great  legislative  body  where  should  reside  the  conserva- 
tive and  independent  forces  of  our  institutions,  an  effort  was 
made  to  secure  full  inquiry  into  the  conspiracy  which  wan- 
tonly defloured  Colombia  of  her  fairest  territory;  but,  in  ad- 
dition to  positive  suppression  of  diplomatic  correspondence, 
an  investigation  was  refused  by  a  partisan  majority.  Had 
this  investigation  been  allowed  and  the  intrigue  exposed 
the  determining  factor  in  the  fabricated  rebellion  would 
have  been  traced  by  public  inquiry  not  only  to  the  thresh- 
old, but  into  the  very  portals  of  the  Administration. 

Having  inspired  the  insurrection,  it  was  natural,  and  com- 
ported with  the  peculiar  honor  which  subsists  even  among 
vulgar  and  unpretentious  plunderers,  that  the  administra- 


tion  should  keep  faith  with  its  puppets  and  confederates  to 
the  end.  In  confusing  and  guilty  haste  it  anticipated  and 
discounted  the  time  for  the  revolt.  It  magnified  the  num- 
ber and  character  of  the  insurgents,  and  officers  of  the  gov- 
ernment connived  at  a  subterfuge  to  deceive  and  corrupt 
the  forces  sent  to  crush  the  uprising.  It  denied  the  author- 
ity of  Colombia  to  suppress  the  revolutionary  movement 
both  prior  and  subsequent  to  its  culmination.  It  invaded 
its  territory  by  land  and  sea  to  accomplish  its  dismember- 
ment upon  the  false  pretense  of  preserving  the  freedom  of 
transit  across  the  Isthmus.  It  reversed  the  course  of  the 
Government  for  more  than  half  a  century  and  perverted 
the  treaty  of  1846  by  proclaiming  that  the  duty  of  main- 
taining free  transit  was  primarily  upon  the  United  States, 
and  that  this  mere  easement  was  superior  to  the  right  of 
Colombia  to  sovereignty  and  self-preservation.  Not  content 
with  these  acts  of  illegality  and  turpitude,  but  seeking  to 
give  them  the  augmented  force  which  attends  success,  and 
purposing  to  complete  the  spoliation,  the  Administration 
within  two  days  recognized  the  mock  government  it  alone 
created  and  upheld,  and  within  two  weeks,  in  the  very 
midst  of  war,  accepted  a  cession  of  the  coveted  territory 
from  its  allies  and  associates.  Never  before  in  our  history 
has  a  revolutionary  and  seceding  government  been  recog- 
nized without  reference  to  what  action  might  be  taken  by 
the  parent  State  to  enforce  its  authority  over  the  revolting 
section.  From  Monroe  to  McKinley  we  presented  the  just 
and  lofty  example  of  insisting  in  such  cases  upon  the  "  con- 
dition that  recognition  of  independent  statehood  is  not  due 
to  a  revolted  dependency  until  the  danger  of  its  being  again 
subjugated  by  the  parent  State  has  entirely  passed  away." 


6 

It  was  left  to  the  present  Administration,  in  the  case  of  a 
republic  which  we  were  the  first  to  welcome  into  the  family 
of  nations  in  1823,  to  trample  upon  the  wise  precedents  of 
eighty  years,  and  in  a  spirit  of  cupidity  to  reverse  the  policy 
which  made  this  Government  the  exemplar  of  the  world. 

The  specious  defense  of  recognition  by  the  President,  in 
its  last  analysis,  is  founded  upon  the  argument  of  kings, 
sometime  called  manifest  destiny,  impelled  by  the  interests 
of  collective  civilization,  which  he  properly  characterized  in 
his  life  of  Benton  as  that  which  would  "  swallow  up  the 
land  of  all  adjoining  nations  who  were  too  weak  to  withstand 
us,  a  theory  that  forthwith  obtained  immense  popularity 
among  the  statesmen  of  easy  international  morality."  Inde- 
fensible and  scandalous  as  others  are,  there  is  no  phase  of 
this  lamentable  affair  from  its  inception  to  its  close  which  is 
more  dishonorable  and  more  grossly  perversive  of  moral 
rectitude  than  the  breach  of  the  treaty  of  1846.  By  that 
treaty  the  United  States  guaranteed  to  Colombia  against  all 
foreign  nations,  including  themselves,  the  territory  of  the 
Isthmus;  yet,  contrary  to  the  broad  spirit  of  this  obligation, 
the  Administration  through  a  sham  revolution  has  seized 
and  appropriated  the  property.  In  consideration  of  the 
guaranty  by  the  United  States  of  the  territory  and  neutrality 
of  the  Isthmus,  Colombia  guaranteed  not  only  the  freedom 
of  transit  across  it,  but  other  extensive  and  valuable  rights 
and  privileges  wholly  distinct  from  the  Isthmus.  If  it  be 
said  in  legal  fiction  that  under  present  conditions  the  right 
of  free  transit  comes  from  Panama,  it  remains  true  that  the 
United  States  are  holding  Colombia  to  all  other  grants  and 
privileges  of  the  treaty  when  the  consideration  for  them  has 
absolutely  failed. 


The  contemplation  of  the  course  pursued  by  the  Adminis- 
tration in  this  great  emergency  can  bring  neither  satisfaction 
nor  pride  to  an  American  citizen.  Admitting  the  transcend- 
ent importance  of  the  enterprise,  it  did  not  justify  the 
ignoble  means  employed  and  they  were  not  necessar}'  to  its 
final  accomplishment.  There  was  involved  in  the  under- 
taking no  vital  principle  of  free  government,  no  overmaster- 
ing consideration  of  patriotism,  no  magnanimous  sacrifice 
for  the  elevation  of  mankind.  The  motive  was  selfish  and 
mercenary,  and  the  contest  was  between  the  ambition  and 
avarice  of  the  powerful  and  the  rights  and  interests  of  the 
weak  and  helpless.  It  may  be  that  the  canal  will  be  con- 
structed during  this  generation.  It  may  be  that  in  our  day 
majestic  ships  flying  the  battle  flag  of  a  great  people  will  tell 
of  its  strategic  value,  and  that  it  will  offer  a  passage  for  the 
commerce  of  the  world.  If  such  prophecies  shall  be  ful- 
filled, our  gratification  in  the  achievement  will  be  marred 
alone  by  the  infamy  of  its  origin,  by  the  just  condemnation 
of  history,  and  by  the  imperishable  truth  that  "  with  nations, 
as  with  men,  the  law  of  progress  is  the  rule  of  right." 


-S 


